COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) - All of a sudden, Sarah Palin is eager to meet the press.

John McCain’s running mate took questions from her press corps for the second time in three days late Sunday after flying into Colorado Springs. But Palin was not completely on message.

Wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and standing on a breezy tarmac, Palin said that if she had her way, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee would not be flooding battleground states with automated phone calls tying Barack Obama to former radical William Ayers, as they have done over the last week.

Several top Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins and Norm Coleman, have condemned the tactic. Asked about those criticisms, Palin at first dismissed the matter as "inside baseball stuff" and said it's "some of the campaign top brass’s call on that."

But when asked if she would approve the use of robocalls if she were running the campaign, Palin said she’d probably chart a different course.

"If I called all the shots, and if I could wave a magic wand," Palin said, "I would be sitting at a kitchen table with more and more Americans, talking to them about our plan to get the economy back on track and winning the war, and not having to rely on the old conventional ways of campaigning that includes those robocalls, and includes spending so much money on the television ads that, I think, is kind of draining out there in terms of Americans' attention span.

"They get a bit irritated with just being inundated," she continued, "and you're seeing a lot of that of course with the huge amounts of money that Barack Obama is able to spend on his ads and his robocalls also."

Ultimately, the Alaska governor said she was not calling for an end to the automated calls, and she did not say if she had spoken to campaign officials at any point about the calls.

Palin was also asked if she and McCain believe that Barack Obama’s tax plan, which would raise taxes on Americans making over $250,000 and provide tax credits to middle and lower-income workers, is socialist. At a campaign rally in New Mexico earlier Sunday, Palin said Obama wants to "experiment with socialism."

"There are socialist principles to that, yes," Palin said of Obama's plan. "Taking more from a small business or small business owners or from a hard working family and then redistributing that money according to a politician’s priorities. There are hints of socialism in there."

Asked if she thinks the government’s plan to inject billions of taxpayer dollars directly into troubled banks amounts to socialism - a belief held by many conservative legislators, talk radio hosts and bloggers - Palin said, "No, I do not."

"I believe that there are those measures that had to be taken by congress to shore up not only the housing market but the credit markets also, to make sure that that’s not frozen, so that our small businesses have opportunities to borrow, and that was the purpose, of course, and that part of the bailout and the shoring of the banks," she said.

soundoff(405 Responses)

Erik

"There are hints of socialism in there," says Sarah Palin about Obama's very reasonable tax plan. Did she learn about "socialism" in McCain's debate camp, or in one of the six schools she attended while finishing her bachelor's degree in communications? Taxation is not socialism. Look it up in the freakin' dictionary, people. The Republicans are using the word "socialism" as a propaganda tool. Gets the low-info voter all riled up.

October 20, 2008 09:15 am at 9:15 am |

Stephen O

I am so amazed that she is now saying that the robocalls are wrong. She is the one that started the whole thing with her comments about Obama "palling around with terrorists". It's also unreal to me that anyone is criticizing Obama's fundraising. Like a previous poster said the money has come from every day, ordinary people that believe in what he stands for and want a REAL CHANGE! If sharing the wealth and taxing those over 250k more is socialism than so is the bailout. She's is a complete and utter airhead. DANGEROUS!

October 20, 2008 09:16 am at 9:16 am |

Tim

Could someone please explain to me why there is such controversy in this election? For the past 8 years we have had a Republican administration that has done nothing right. This administration has been the most corrupt and self serving pack of wolves ever. "It's the economy stupid" or is it the war...or education...or the wealth gap...or loosing all of our allies...or Katrina...or healthcare...etc

October 20, 2008 09:16 am at 9:16 am |

Not a fan of the 'Cuda

To the folks who buy Palin's spew:

The more you make, the more you pay. As a result of your greater payments, people in lower tax brackets both pay less and have access to greater services (such as tax credits, affordable healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, decent roads, national defense, etc.) That's called a "progressive income tax," because as you go higher up the income ladder, the burden (in theory) is progressively higher.

Don't like it? Do away with the tax code. I just hope you like living in an unsafe building and defending yourself and your belongings every day, since there won't be little things like police, firefighters or building code inspectors.

Also, don't call people making $250k a year "hard working" as a group. Many of them are earning that off of trust funds or other investments, not the sweat of their brow – like one Cindy McCain. A huge percentage of this group are also people like lawyers and doctors whose salaries have skyrocketed over the last 15-20 years without a demonstrable increase in their talent or work ethic. Trust me. I saw my salary more than double in 7 years, and I wasn't suddenly doing twice the work. Some people are real innovators and work hard – but many just had better options and opportunities.

October 20, 2008 09:16 am at 9:16 am |

John Miller

I think something has gone awry with Colin Powell's reasoning ability.
Sarah Palin has more political experience than Obama and if there's any doubt about Obama's socialist leanings, please review his economic plan. If redistribution of ewealthg is not socialism, then I sure don't understand the concept.